The Detention Center
Traverse County Detention Center (also called the Traverse County Jail / County Law Enforcement Center)
- Operated byTraverse County Sheriff's Office
- Opened"The new County Law Enforcement Center/Jail opened in July of 2007" — Traverse County Sheriff's Office page
- Capacity"The Jail houses up to eleven inmates" per the county's own site; the MN DOC's 2025 inspection report lists an approved capacity of 11 secure coed beds (70% operational capacity, about 7.7 beds)
- FunctionTraverse County's own Communications/Corrections page states: "The Traverse County Detention Center houses all inmates held pending trial or disposition by the Court and all inmates sentenced by the Court to incarceration of one year or less," and also runs work release and fingerprinting services
- Jail administrator (staff title, not a separate county department)Blayne Olson, named as Jail Administrator in the MN DOC's 2025 inspection report — the county's own site does not describe detention as a separate department, so jail_administrator is recorded null per the sheriff-is-jailer default
- Public inmate rosterhttps://mail.co.traverse.mn.us/InmateRoster/Inmate_Roster.pdf, printed September 17, 2026, lists 7 total booking records, of which 4 are held by the Traverse County Sheriff's Office and the rest are held for the Stevens County and Grant County Sheriff's Offices — evidence Traverse boards other counties' prisoners, though no contract terms or rates are published on this page
- Main county domain closedhttps://www.co.traverse.mn.us/ itself, and its Sheriff's Office sub-pages for warrants and the in-page "Inmate Roster" link, were refused by WebFetch as disallowed by the site's own robots.txt ("All paths disallowed by robots.txt"); only the separate mail.co.traverse.mn.us subdomain (hosting the inmate roster PDF) was reachable
- Also sourced toTraverse County Communications/Corrections — https://www.co.traverse.mn.us/departments/departments/sheriff/communicationscorrections/
- Also sourced toMN DOC Adult Facilities Inspection Report — Traverse County Jail, Sept. 25, 2025 — https://mn.gov/doc/assets/Traverse%20County%20Jail%202025_tcm1089-708316.pdf
Source: Traverse County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-09-18
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✗PREA audits — not published
- ✗Independent inspection — not published
- ✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
- ✗How to post bond — not published
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built2007 — "The new County Law Enforcement Center/Jail opened in July of 2007" (Traverse County Sheriff's Office)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds11 (secure, coed) — county site and MN DOC 2025 inspection report agree
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Trevor J. Wright
- Runs the jailYes — the elected sheriff has charge and custody of the county jail under Minn. Stat. 387.11 and is responsible for its operation and condition under Minn. Stat. 641.14 (MN state layer)
- How the office is filledElected countywide to a four-year term under Minn. Stat. 382.01 (MN state layer)
- Confirmed twiceNamed as "Trevor J. Wright" on the county's own Sheriff's Office page and as "Trevor Wright" in the MN DOC's 2025 inspection report of the Traverse County Jail
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Traverse County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-09-18
The Judges
Minnesota district judges are elected on a nonpartisan ballot to six-year terms, but most first reach the bench by gubernatorial appointment to a mid-term vacancy. Bail at first appearance is set by the court under Minn. R. Crim. P. 6.02.
Minnesota District Court (judicial district covering Traverse County)
- Not found
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-09-18
The County Commissioners
They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.
- What they controlThe detention budget, the building itself, and the agreements that let other agencies rent its beds.
- What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and answers to voters, not to the board.
- The boardBoard of County Commissioners
Notes on the record
- Traverse County's own site names the jail's function and capacity (Sheriff's Office and Communications/Corrections pages) and its mail.co.traverse.mn.us subdomain publishes a live inmate roster, which is the basis for the three 'yes' checks. Budget, deaths, PREA, inspections, contracts, bond guidance and fee schedules were not found on any county page actually opened — the main co.traverse.mn.us domain otherwise refuses all WebFetch attempts under its own robots.txt.
- The roster shows Traverse County holding prisoners booked by the Stevens County and Grant County Sheriff's Offices, which is factual evidence of cross-county boarding, but no contract or rate information accompanies it, so 'contracts' remains 'no'.
- Not found — Traverse County's main site (co.traverse.mn.us) refused every WebFetch attempt beyond the Sheriff's Office pages ("All paths disallowed by robots.txt"). Minnesota counties are generally governed by an elected Board of County Commissioners.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Traverse County and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).
How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?
Your VOTE is POWERFUL.
The sheriff who runs this jail is elected. So are the commissioners who pay for it.
Names verified 2026-09-18 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered